With Owner Tom Yawkey's spending temporarily halted, the 1935 Red Sox finished with their first winning record in 17 years. Despite the stronger performance of the team, Fenway Park attendance paradoxically dropped off a bit from the previous year, though the ballpark did attract a crowd of nearly 48,000 fans for a late September doubleheader against the Yankees. Fenway also hosted a bevy of non-Red Sox events, including wrestling and Boston Redskins home football games.

The Red Sox

On February 8, 1935, Owner Tom Yawkey announced that his spending to acquire ballplayers was over. Though Yawkey's spending would resume after the 1935 season, he had already acquired the services of Joe Cronin, Rick Ferrell, Wes Ferrell, Lefty Grove, Fred Ostermueller, George Pipgras, Rube Walberg and Bill Werber, among others.

Grove returned to form in 1935 and went 20-12 with a 2.70 ERA, while Wes Ferrell won 25 games and posted a 3.52 ERA. The latter was also quite adept with the bat, hitting .347 with seven homers, while his brother and frequent battery mate, Rick, hit .301. Wes was occasionally used as a pinch-hitter and on July 21 he hit a game-winning home run. The next day, he started on the mound and hit another home run to support his own cause in a 12-1 victory (the next time the Red Sox won back-to-back games via the home run was in May 2005). Cronin made his debut as Red Sox player/manager in the 1935 preseason exhibition game against the Braves, and went on to hit .295 with a team-leading 95 RBIs.

The 1935 Red Sox won more games than they lost and were never more than two games below .500 or eight games above. Still, some of the excitement of a new ballpark and team waned a bit and attendance fell by 10 percent. On September 22, however, some 47,627 turned out for a doubleheader with the Yankees, including 5,000 roped off on the field. It remains the largest baseball crowd in Fenway Park history. Far fewer saw a game-ending triple play at Fenway on September 7 that began with a ricochet off Cleveland third baseman Odell Hale's head.

Renovations

Compared to the frenzied pace of renovations following the 1933 season, the next few winters at Fenway Park were relatively tame. Still, the final months of the 1935 calendar year did see a series of minor adjustments: augmentations to the grandstands costing the team a few thousand dollars; new entrances, monetary exchange booths, water bubblers and bathrooms; and various furniture and equipment additions to the team offices.

Non-Red Sox Baseball At Fenway Park

Over the course of four June days in 1935, eight Massachusetts high school baseball teams competed at Fenway Park, with Somerville High emerging as champion of the interscholastic tournament by beating Lowell High on June 15. Four days later, a team of Republican legislators from the Massachusetts House of Representatives defeated a team of their Democratic counterparts in a six-inning game. According to an article in The Boston Globe, "the losers demanded a recount, moved reconsideration, rose to sundry points of order and offered to postpone sine die, but the lopsided score still remained." Two more teams of rivals faced off against each other on July 9, 1935, when New York Policemen and Firemen visited Fenway Park to play Boston Policemen and Firemen. After three innings, the game was called due to rain with New York leading, 3-2. Towards the end of the Red Sox season, another interesting matchup pitted Boston baseball writers against the Fenway Park Front Office. This game also lasted only three innings and again, the home team didn't fare well.

More Than a Ballpark™

On July 9, 1935, the Boston Department of Public Welfare hosted a summer carnival at Fenway Park. Also in 1935, several football games and a pair of wrestling matches, both of which were won by local favorite Dan O'Mahoney, took place at the ballpark. On the gridiron, the Boston Redskins won their first and last home games of the 1935 season at Fenway Park, but lost the other five in between.

1935 Non-Baseball Events At Fenway Park

May 12

War Memorial Service*

June 27

Dan O'Mahoney Defeats Jim Londos (Wrestling)

July 9

Boston Department of Public Welfare Athletic and Musical Carnival

September 11

Dan O'Mahoney Pins Ed Don George (Wrestling)

September 29

Boston Redskins 7, Brooklyn Dodgers 3 (Football)

October 6

New York Giants 20, Boston Redskins 12 (Football)

October 13

Detroit Lions 17, Boston Redskins 7 (Football)

October 16

Dorchester High 13, Mechanic Arts 7 (Football)

October 16

Charlestown High 0, Jamaica Plain High 0 (Football)

October 17

Boston Latin 19, Roxbury Memorial High School 0 (Football)

October 17

East Boston High 7, Brighton High 0 (Football)

October 18

Hyde Park High 0, South Boston High 0 (Football)

October 18

High School of Commerce 8, Boston Trade 0 (Football)

October 23

Roxbury Memorial 13, Brighton High 6 (Football)

October 23

South Boston High 10, Charlestown 6 (Football)

October 24

High School of Commerce 7, Mechanic Arts 0 (Football)

October 24

Dorchester High 12, Boston Trade 0 (Football)

October 29

Roxbury Memorial 6, Boston Trade 0 (Football)

October 29

South Boston High 14, Brighton High 0 (Football)

November 3

Philadelphia Eagles 7, Boston Redskins 6 (Football)

November 9

Rutgers 12, Boston University 6 (Football)

November 10

Chicago Bears 30, Boston Redskins 14 (Football)

November 24

Chicago Cardinals 6, Boston Redskins 0 (Football)

December 1

Boston Redskins 13, Pittsburgh Pirates 3 (Football)

*Started in the 1910s, a late May memorial service coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend was often held at Fenway Park through the mid-20th Century.

June 27, 1935 Dan O'Mahoney Defeats Jim Londos At Fenway Park

Long before the mainstream wrestling on television, wrestling was a popular sport in Boston. Matches were held regularly at the Boston Garden, Braves Field and Fenway Park. In the greatest wrestling match ever held at Fenway Park, some 30,000 filled the stands to watch local favorite Dan O'Mahoney, a former soldier in the Irish Free State Army, pin the great Jim Londos after an hour and 16 minutes of what the Boston Post described as "rugged grappling."

In a firsthand Boston Post exclusive O'Mahoney wrote:

"I hardly know what to say. I have just called my father on long distance telephone in Ballydehob, Ireland, and you should have heard the cheering when I told him I had beaten Jim Londos, whom my father regarded as the world's greatest wrestler. The whole village must have been assembled at the farm judging by the noise that came over the 'phone." (Boston Post, June 28, 1935)